life in vegas

I couldn’t find any really riveting news items to post about, except this shocker: the Riviera’s announced sale might not go through. Those of you who have been following the Riv story know what an absolute surprise that is. I get the feeling that this isn’t going to end soon. With a dearth of news, […]

Time passes pretty quickly in Las Vegas. Well, I guess in the objective sense it passes just as quickly as everywhere else (though relativity theory might say otherwise). But in this city, things get old fast. Here’s a small case in point: Doing some research for an article I’m writing about the evolution of Las

I thought that earth-shaking explosions were a thing of the past for Las Vegas–there haven’t been any nuclear detonations at the Nevada Test Site since 1992 (according to the LV Sun, anyway), and above-ground testing stopped way before that. And it’s not as if the federal government is detonating a weapon of mass destruction a

It’s an exciting time to be a buffet devotee in Las Vegas, that’s for sure. First, VegasResource has revealed its list of the Top 20 buffets in town. I wish more people were as honest with their titles as “billhere” of VR: THE TOP 20 BUFFETS IN LAS VEGAS, IN MY OPINION, ARE: 1. Wynn

I’ve been out of the office for two days, so of course my inbox is filled with all sorts of campus announcements including, for some reason, a blatant advertising for the DaVinci Code. And then there’s this: Could the next “Apprentice” also be a Rebel? Find out… when NBC brings the search for Donald Trump’s

One of the challenges of being an academic who’s asked to comment on history for the media is being able to share my ideas about history in a way that is accessible to all. The articles I write for the Business Press, for example, have a different tone than purely scholarly articles that I write.

Anyone from Atlantic City knows why that’s a funny title–or at least they should. In any event, there will be an epic buffet unfolding at the Las Vegas Hilton in two weeks. From the Hilton Hot Sheet: Alka-Seltzer, in celebration of its 75th anniversary makes an attempt to set a Guinness World Record for the

There is an interesting debate in American Interest between Francis Fukayama and Bernard-Henri Levy “over American virtues and vices, neoconservatives, religion, the future of American muscular internationalism, and the role of intellectuals in a free society.” Interesting, it starts in Las Vegas but, as the title suggests, goes pretty far afield. In this first couple

I never watch those red carpet shows where someone critiques what people are wearing at various awards shows, but I’ve gathered that they just make all kinds of catty comments and allow people sitting at home shoveling down Ben and Jerry’s ice cream feel aestetichally superior to professional actressses with teams of designers, hair, and

Auto racing is the big thing in Las Vegas this week, so I thought that people might appreciate this item from Sports Illustrated about the fact and fantasy of betting on NASCAR. For example… Most Nevada gambling establishments will offer a variety of wagers. While this includes action on events such as “most laps led,”

As proof that Las Vegas really has a unique place in the American landscape, the city and a few of its most famous stage legends popped up in a story about artist Thomas Kinkaide, who apparently likes to have a few belts, disparage stage magicians and “mark his territory.” From the LA Times: Dandois, who

If you’re not intimately familiar with the Las Vegas Strip, it can be a confusing place. You might hear somewhere that the Venetian’s got a great buffet and spend your whole time in Vegas looking forward to eating there, only to be disappointed. Luckily for you, Jeff Simpson of the LV Sun has posted a

…to go on the Strip? According to Liz Benston at the Sun, the Riviera might not be such a bad bet: A group of experienced real estate developers has reached an agreement with the chief executive of the company that owns the Riviera to buy out his shares of stock in the casino’s parent company

Post-Katrina Biloxi will look very different from the city before August 29, 2005. There’s a good piece in the Sun-Herald about an amibitious proposal from Harrah’s and some unintended consequences of the burgeoning condo boom: Harrah’s Entertainment, the world’s largest gambling company, will invest more than $1 billion to build two casinos in Biloxi, said

I was down at the Boardwalk closing yesterday–it’s quite a thing to see a casino shut its doors. I’m going to be involved in an oral history program that will collect interviews from former employees, so if you know someone who used to work there, have them get in touch with me. I think there